Lights, Camera, Ghosts???
Just like any other theatre in
America or anywhere on earth for that fact, The Rose
Theatre at Semo is just like the rest. With stories of
hauntings and mischievous pranks being played before any
performance I have had my share. Now I have always been
the type of person who has believed in ghosts and well I
have also always been able to sense them. My first
experience with "Mary" and "Old Man" happened way before I
was a student here.
I had taken a summer theatre class one year when I was
younger. I was in charge of publicity and while working
on it my friends came in to tell me that we were gonna take
a break. I nodded and told them I would meet them in the
theatre when I was done (since I only had a little more
left to do before i was done.) When I did finish I walked
into the theatre and found nothing. So I walked up on
stage looked in the wings and of course the scene shop and
still found nothing. I turned and looked up into the house
and saw a man sitting in the audience, thinking it was my
friend Brandon I yelled at him to wait up for me. I did
nothing more than blink when I realized the man was gone.
Freaked out I bolted up the stairs and out the door to see
my friends all sitting around looking at me like I was
crazy.
Later in the day I asked one of the college kids
that was helping with the class if the theatre was haunted
he looked at me and said yes, then he went to tell me about
the story of "Mary" and "old man".
Mary was a girl who was murdered on the lands before the theatre was built. There
is a mysterious spot on the ground in the back row of the
theatre that grow a little more year by year. That is
where most of her sightings are well... besides of course
back stage.
The old man is the man who owned the land
before the theatre was built but refused to sell it. When
he died they bought the land and as stubborn as he is still
stays in the place he once lived. Now you know the history
back to my experiences.
Fast forward to 2004, I am now a
freshman at Semo and a theatre kid at that. With the
memory of the old man out of my head and the ghost of Mary
nothing but a ghost story told to freak me out, I was in
rehearsal for a production one night when the memories of
what happened came rushing back.
My friend (who ironically is named Mary) and I were waiting for our cue to go on
stage, when she said it was cold, jokingly I mocked to
her, "Well you know why that is right?" We had a good
laugh about it but I wished I hadn't said anything because
from that night forward was a creepy experience for me.
Well after our run through we were taking notes when I
looked up to the top of the house and saw a woman in an old
time pink dress staring down at us and as quickly as she
came she vanished. Freaked out I just walked out of the
theatre not saying anything to anyone.
The first day of performance had to be the creepiest experience. My friend
and I arrived a little early to sign in and then head up to
the lobby to hang out with some other kids. Well we had
both signed in when we heard a loud thud. I thought I was
hearing things until she managed to peep out," did you hear
that?" So I went to investigate.
I couldn't find anything or anyone to be around and couldn't find the source from
which the thud came from. Still thinking about it being a
guy who would do something like that my friend and I went
to talk to him.
He said he hadn't been down there since
class earlier that morning and the girl working in the box
office along with some other students said he had been in
there the whole time.
I thought they were still playing
jokes on me until the show was suppose to go... our
speakers as well as monitors all blew and lights kept
flickering on and off. Now Mary is known to be a bit
mischievous but I never thought it would be this creepy.
I am now a firm believer in the two ghosts of Rose Theatre
since I have had my own experiences with them. So if you
ever visit the Rose Theatre and are all alone don't be
surprised if someone or something tries to scare you.
Contact me here: punk_rawker_girl@hotmail.com
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